Social networking could leave you open to abuse
by tahera on June 28th, 2010
filed under Techonolgy, Twitter
The ever growing craze of social networking using sites such as foursquare and twitter can lead you to harm, if you are not extra vigilant about what you disclose.
Someone who is even a little bit internet and tech savvy will be able to figure out where you are (not at home) and rob you. What about stalkers? Someone who has taken more than a shining to you will know exactly where you are and what you are doing in order to further fuel their obsession.
What would happen if you search “not for distribution” confidential filetype:pdf” – Go on try it, you will actually get results for documents that are in actual fact, not meant for distribution, if it’s not meant for distribution, why put them on the internet for all to see and find?
So, combining all the platforms and utilising the power of the internet, you will see it is very easy to find key information about a person. Let’s look at some examples.
First create a database of people in your area who tweet their location. Once you have these people, you can ‘follow’ them on twitter, and wait for them to next tweet where they are. Some silly people actually link their foursquare with twitter, and then “check in” at their home address. Disclosing this information to all. You can then use Google street view, to see exactly what his house looks like, and how easy it would be to enter.
So we now have a picture of our target (from twitter and/or foursquare) and we could easily look up where they work thanks to LinkedIn.
If you’ve put your phone number on these sites, then hey presto, you have a number to call to make sure no one is home before you start your robbery.
And why would you ever tweet, use foursquare to tell people you are on holiday? Many people will check in at the airport, boasting about how they are going away with the whole family for a holiday. As you know, you can look through the previous tweets timeline, and find one with his check-in to home, and guess what? You instantly have acess to an empty house – take what you will.
So if you’re posting personal data all over the interweb, using Twitter and playing Four Square, you just might want to think twice.
Social Media sites may not be seen in the same light as “real life” issues, but that does not mean you shouldn’t take the same precautions.
Should insurance companies charge higher home insurance premiums to people active in social media as a result? What if they get burgled and it can be proven you advertised you were not home. Would that work in the same way as car insurance? If your items are on display it’s your own fault you got robbed?
I got my inspiration from a site called www.pleaserobme.com, a couple of guys created a script that runs on Twitter for Foursquare notifications. Letting you search for people to see where they are, and to confirm they are not home. The site actually does not do this anymore, but is still there so you can see what they did.
This post can be quite dangerous, as im aware i am informing ‘bad’ people on how to do things, but i felt it necessary for people to know. I have however left a fair bit out as it’s probably best not to advertise such things.
What am i doing here?
by tahera on February 21st, 2009
filed under Chit-Chat, Twitter
So the other day I decided a blog would be a good idea. You know a place to inform, entertain and let me communicate my view to the world, and of course hear other peoples. So off I went into the big world of the inter-web, and found the perfect URL.
My first name. Couldn’t believe it was still available….So I snapped it up like a starving piranha, in a public swimming pool.
I bought the domain, and found hosting. Now for the content.
Absolute Blank.
What was I going to write about? Who was going to be interested? Wait a minute, what was the big deal about a blog anyway? So I started thinking ….. blogs are a vital role in social media, news coverage and analysis of stuff.
OK so they don’t provide up to the minute breaking news like twitter, the newest craze of social media, – but blogs give you more substance, thought and depth than those afforded by a 140 character text box.
So I figured I’d use this space as a personal brain dump, and general word vomit…if not I’ll sell the domain on…maybe to the diamond corporation that has the .com of my name!